Like A Man Possessed

By: Tracy Cook

Disclaimer: I own nothing. These characters belong to the creators of Vampire Diaries.

Couple: Bonnie/Damon

Rating: M

Warning : This fic will have serial killer Damon in it. And lots of murder and violence and smut!

Chapter Twenty-Five

Fragile

'I Feel The Breeze, The Beat Of My Heart.

I Don't Want To See The End Of Our Dream.'

His dark eyes were focused intently on the video, and her eyes were focused intently on him watching it. She was looking for any sign that he was starting to believe what he was seeing. 'Why the bloody hell does Elijah have to be so difficult to read? He looks like a bleeding statue right now!'

Elijah watched as Damon's head snapped back and he started to speak in a deeper tone of voice. He watched the blood pour from Bonnie's nose. He watched the "demon" point out all of their biggest flaws and deepest darkest secrets, and he quickly came to a conclusion, "This film is fabricated, Rebekah." He glanced over at his partner and he saw that she was shocked by his revelation.

'Had she been expecting me to believe this to be real? She acts like she has already witnessed this film. Who knows, she very well might have.' He couldn't trust her any longer. He was nearly certain that she was working with her brother and the murder suspect.

"How can you be so sure?" Rebekah asked with a furrowed brow and pursed lips. She didn't understand how he could be so quick to write the video off as a fake.

"How can I be so sure?" He asked with an amused grin. "I'm sure because demons do not exist."

"Elijah, I understand. I was skeptical at first as well, but-"

"At first?" Elijah interrupted with a slight cock of his head and a knowing glint in his eyes.

"Yes. While I was just watching the film." Rebekah attempted to correct her mistake. "I was skeptical. I was sure that it must have been fabricated, but how do you explain all of those special effects? They look more realistic than the special effects in Hollywood productions."

"Kids these days can do anything with the right computer equipment." He insisted stubbornly.

'I thought I was the stubborn one.' The blonde thought to herself. She was growing exceedingly frustrated with his stubbornness. Even with visual evidence he wasn't even willing to consider the possibility that the "demonic possession story" was anything more than a story. He was set in his ways of thinking. 'If this video isn't going to convince him, then I am afraid nothing will.'

"Those veins in his neck didn't seem very "computer generated" in the interrogation room." Rebekah reminded.

"It was some sort of trick."

"And the fire?"

"I've seen the same magic trick hundreds of times, Rebekah!" He stated sternly, pushing his chair away from the computer desk and standing to his feet. He was now holding his hands behind his back and staring angrily down at her. The blonde had never witnessed her partner so angry. He always kept his cool. This case was really getting the best of him.

"Alright. Say that all of those effects were mere tricks." She said with an understanding nod of her head as she too stood to her feet. "How do you explain the fear on my brother's face? How do you explain the things that the demon knew?"

"It was all part of a plan." Elijah shook his head and placed his fingers to his forehead. He couldn't believe that she was falling for their tricks. "They told him what to say and he said it. Your brother was acting."

"I can read people, Elijah." Rebekah said with a confident raise of her chin. Blue eyes staring directly into brown. "I know when people are "acting" and my brother was most definitely not acting in that video. He was horrified!"

"Contrary to your beliefs, Rebekah, I too am capable of reading people." He took a step toward her and clenched his jaw as he stared her down. He was tired of her blatant lies. He had thought that he could trust her. He had thought of her as a sister. And now she was keeping things from him. "And do you want to know what I am reading off of you?"

"What?" She chewed on her cheeks.

"I am reading that you are too close to this case on a personal level." He said. "I believe that your brother's involvement in this case is making you question the validity of the evidence. It is making you question if demonic possession is real. It is making you question if the murder is indeed Damon Salvatore's fault."

"Kol wouldn't lie about this." Rebekah's eyes were filled with hope and desperation. She needed her partner to understand that her brother had no reason to go to such massive lengths to protect a murderer. If he was protecting Damon then his story was true. She knew that. She wished more than anything that he would see that too. "You keep saying that you don't feel as if you can trust me any longer, but I need you to trust in me right now. I need you to consider the possibility that this "story" of theirs may be true."

"You really are starting to believe them aren't you?" Elijah asked.

"Yes. I am."

"In that case, I am afraid I have no other choice." There was sorrow in his tone. He had been holding out hope that the blonde would come to her senses, but that didn't seem like it was going to happen. "I am going to have to request that you are removed from this case due to your personal connection with the suspects."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Elijah, please don't do this."

"I'm so sorry, Rebekah. I have to do this." He said. "Your thought process has been compromised and I can no longer work with you." The words rolled off his tongue so easily that it broke her heart. It was all about the job for him.

As Elijah turned on his heels and walked away from her, they both knew that the friendship and partnership they had built for years was over.

'Fragile.

Like A Feather In The Wind.'

"Would you look at that." Bonnie said with a twist of her lips as she flipped through the pages of the grimoire. It had been an awkward transition from bondage to books, but they had finally made it. Now she was back to focusing on finding a way to get rid of the demon inside of the man she loved.

"What is it, Bon-Bon?" He asked with a playful smirk as he walked behind her and stared over her shoulder at the book.

She turned to look up at him and said, "According to my ancestors vampires actually existed." It was all making sense why she had thought her grams was crazy when she told her that the things in the book were real.

Damon shrugged his shoulders at the comment. "That's not so hard to believe."

"You had a hard time believing that I was a witch, but you believe in vampires?" Bonnie asked.

"About that." His eyes widened and he raised his brows at her. "I've been meaning to tell you something." With that he made a hissing sound and he leant down, sinking his teeth into her neck. She started laughing when she felt his teeth against the skin of her throat. Everything was a joke to him. She had literally just told him that vampires really existed at some time and he was pretending to be one.

Bonnie tried to push him away, but he bit down harder on her neck. "Stop joking around, Damon!" She laughed, pushing at his shoulder again, trying to pry him from her neck.

Finally, he pulled away from her and his smirk widened. "Who says I'm joking, witchy?" He sang. "If you can be a witch, I can be a vampire."

"What you need to be is serious for a second and focus on searching for this demon." She scolded. Her serious side was coming back out. She felt like the two of them had already wasted a lot of time with their earlier activities. A blush painted her cheeks as she recalled how it had felt to have Damon between her thighs. 'Okay, stop thinking about this and focus on finding the demon.'

"Oh, Bonnie. Always so serious." Damon teased, taking a seat in the chair beside her.

Bonnie ignored him and focused on the pages of the book as she turned them. She was looking for anything about the ritual or the specific demon that was possessing Damon. 'This book is thousands of years old. Someone has to know something about-Wait, what was that?' She turned the page back and she furrowed her brow as she looked at the symbols written on the top of the page. They were the same symbols that were carved into Damon's wrists.

Beneath the symbols were the words "Bringer of Death."

She was beyond relieved that someone along the line had taken the time to translate the symbols into English, because the entire page was written in them.

Damon furrowed his brow and leant against the table so that he could see the page in the book. He recognized the symbols immediately. They were not only etched into the skin of his arms, they were etched into his mind. He didn't think he could ever forget them. "What's that?"

"I think it's the answer to all of our problems."

"What does it say?" He wondered, interrupting her reading.

"Be quiet and I'll find out."

Silence filled the air for a few minutes as Bonnie read over the page. She could tell that Damon was growing eager and impatient and it was making her feel rushed. She didn't work as well when she felt rushed. She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth and she furrowed her brow as she searched the page for the answers she sought.

"Witchy, what does it say?" He whined over-dramatically. She glared up at him and that was when she noticed that he was smiling at her. He didn't even care what it said, he was just trying to annoy her.

He silenced himself and her green eyes landed on the page again.

She was so concentrated on reading about the history of the competition and how to get rid of the demon that she didn't even realize that Damon was standing to his feet and moving behind her. Not until his lips were hovering over her ear and he was whispering the words, "What does it say?"

Bonnie shivered when she felt his heated breath rush against her ear. He was so frustrating, yet somehow it only caused her to smile. "It says, you're an asshole."

"Well, that isn't very nice of it." Damon pressed a distracting kiss right below her ear and then he moved back to his seat. One of his favorite things to do was to frustrate her. 'She's just so cute when she is frustrated.'

She laughed and shook her head at him. "It says that this competition has been going on for thousands of years." She wasn't going to allow him to distract her from what they needed to be doing. He had already succeeded in distracting her far too much. She loved him and she planned to spend a long demon-free life with him. "Apparently, it was at it's worst over a thousand years ago. There were hundreds of cases popping up left and right and so many people were dying that my ancestors knew they had to intervene."

"And how exactly did they go about doing that?"

"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" Bonnie asked. She looked conflicted with whatever she was reading and that worried him. He was scared to death that the only way to get the demon out of him was going to be death.

"The good news." He said with a smile.

"Well, the good news is that there is a spell we can use to exorcise the demon from your body."

"And the bad news?" Damon asked with a waggle of his brow. He wasn't at all prepared to hear it. He was just trying to put on a brave face. He didn't want to show her just how scared he actually was.

Bonnie chewed on her cheeks and she looked away from his prying eyes. She knew that once she told him the risks involved in performing the spell, he wouldn't want to do it. It wouldn't be worth it to him. But, it was worth it to her. "The spell is pretty risky."

"Risky for who?" He emphasized on the word 'who,' his eyes widening.

"Damon, it doesn't matter how dangerous the spell is. We have to do it." She insisted, turning to look at him.

The way that she was defending the spell answered his question. Bonnie was the one putting herself at risk by doing the spell, and that wasn't something he was going to allow. He had thanked Kol for stopping the seance before it got too overwhelming for Bonnie, because she was his main priority. If she wasn't safe then what was the point of having a normal life? He didn't want a normal life if she wasn't a part of it.

"Risky for who, Bonnie?" Damon asked in a more serious tone of voice this time. He felt like there was a painful weight on his chest suddenly. The thought of allowing Bonnie to risk her life to save him wasn't an option.

She let out a sigh and clenched her jaw tightly. She could already tell that he wasn't going to be on board with the spell. "It is risky for the witch that performs the spell."

"In other words, you." He stated pointedly.

"Yeah."

Damon scrunched up his nose and shook his head, "Not worth it."

"Damon-"

"-It's not worth it." He stood to his feet and started to pace in front of her. Unlike her, he didn't see this as their only option. "We can figure out another way that won't be risky for you at all."

Bonnie stood to her feet and she approached the frantic older man. She reached out and took his shaky hands in hers and she held them up to her lips, kissing each of them. She didn't want to risk her life either, but the alternative was far more risky in her opinion. "There is no other way."

"There is, Bonnie." He said with a raise of his brow. "I can make a deal with the demon to kill one more person and then it will leave my body-"

"-And what if it doesn't?"

That thought hadn't really crossed his mind.

"Even if you make a deal with it there is no reason for it to keep it's promise to you, Damon." Bonnie squeezed his hands tightly. Tears were starting to shimmer in her green eyes, but she held them back. She needed to be strong. She needed to convince him to do the spell. "It's a demon. Odds are, you will kill one more person and then it will take over your body."

"I'd rather risk losing myself than losing you."

"You won't lose me." She said the words with such determination and confidence that he nearly believed them. "I can do this spell and I can make it back to you."

His blue eyes were filled with tears as he shook his head and let go of one of her hands so that he could delicately cup her cheek. She felt so fragile in his hands in that moment. He felt her slipping through his grasp. He felt like he was going to lose her forever. Bonnie Bennett was a beautiful, intelligent, good person. She deserved better than to risk her life for him. He wasn't worth it. "Bonnie." His voice cracked.

Bonnie smiled sadly and she lifted her hand to cover his on her cheek. "Damon, this is the only way that we are ever going to get that life together. This is the only way that we will get our happy ending."

"What if you don't come back?"

"I'll come back." She laughed a little. "God can tempt me with hot sorority girls all he wants."

This caused Damon to smile.

"God himself couldn't keep me from coming back to you, Damon." Bonnie insisted, leaning up and kissing him. She could taste his salty tears on his lips. She kissed him with such longing and passion. She kissed him with all the love she had. He needed to know that she was coming back. That she was strong enough to do the spell and survive. Pulling back, she lost herself in his eyes and whispered against his lips, "I love you, Damon."

"I love you too, Bon-Bon."

"Let me do this for you, please?"

'In A Moment, Lost In Time. Your Hands, Your Eyes,

Seem To Tell Me That We're Dying.'

"So, let me get this straight." Hayley said with concern saturating her voice. "The murder suspect in your current case, may or may not be possessed by the devil, and he escaped your custody?"

"You are starting to sound like Rebekah." Elijah said with a smile as he ran his fingers through her hair. She was resting her head against his shoulder and they were snuggling on the couch. He had a long day at work. He had lost the murder suspect and now he had to say goodbye to a partner he had thought he could trust. "He is not possessed by the devil."

"But, he is still a psychopath that has killed tons of people right?"

"Yes."

"And he's on the loose?"

"Yes."

He knew where Hayley was going with the conversation. When he had first joined the force, he had been seriously injured and nearly died and she had asked him to quit the force in order to start a family. Elijah had wanted to do just that. But, he couldn't. It was in his nature to save people and one case had always seemed to lead to another. Now, there was a murderer on the loose that knew he was the police officer working on his case, so it was only natural for all of those feelings and fears to arise again.

What he didn't know, was that Hayley was pregnant.

She hadn't found the way to tell him yet. He had been so hectic with the case that they hadn't had a chance to really sit down and talk about it. Hayley was hopeful that it would change his mind about quitting the force, but terrified that it wouldn't.

Tears started to fill her eyes and she curled her fingers in the fabric of his shirt. "Elijah, I just can't handle this any longer." She breathed out shakily. "You are always running off and putting your life in danger and now there is a murderer on the loose that could come after you. This is no way to start a family." Before Hayley realized what she was saying, she had let it slip that she was pregnant.

Elijah would easily decipher what she meant.

He pulled away from her and stared down lovingly into her eyes. He had always wanted a child. Somewhere deep inside he had made a promise to himself to give up law enforcement whenever Hayley got pregnant. "What are you saying, Hayley?" He paused and searched her eyes for answers, "Are you...?"

"Yeah." Her voice cracked and tears rolled down her cheeks. "You're going to be a father, Elijah."

"I am?"

"You are!" Hayley's smile was stretching from one ear to the other as she leant up and pressed a delicate kiss to his lips. She was so relieved to see that he was excited about having a child with her. She hoped that it would change his opinion on the force. She didn't want to live in constant fear of losing the most important thing to her any longer. "And I want our son or daughter to have a father."

Elijah nodded his head understandingly. "They will have a father, I promise." He traced his fingers along her jawline and then he kissed her again. "I will quit the force just as soon as I am done with this case."

"Thank you." She breathed out happily. There was a small part of her that felt guilty because she knew how much he loved saving people, but she was willing to be selfish if it meant that they could finally have the family they always dreamed of.

'Just Hold Me Tight.

Please Don't Tell Me We Are Dying.'

Author's Note :

Thank you all so very much for all of your wonderful reviews and support! Y'all mean the world to me! :)) I really hope that y'all like this chapter! Are y'all disappointed that the tape didn't change Elijah's views? How do you feel about the Haylijah scene? Also, what are your thoughts on the Bamon in this chapter? Did you enjoy the playful banter? Are you worried about Bonnie in the next chapter and the spell? Excited to see them get their happily ever after?

I really hope that y'all enjoyed this chapter! Thank you so much for reading!

I love you guys!

-Tracy Cook-